Prologue to:  The Path of the Ronin
by Empshok
Summary: This is the prologue of a hopefully long series of chapters yet to come of a very unique character.  His name is Tsuriai, and he walks the path of the Ronin.  I hope this series is a big hit.  Enjoy!


Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. And this story is about a character with special abilities. But it is still cool. Really cool.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

And so begins…

**The Path of the Ronin**

Prologue

_(Timeline: begins right after Aang is freed from the iceberg)_

Footsteps were an unusual sight in the forbidden frontier for Tsuriai, so when he looked ahead and saw them crossing his path, he decided that he would follow them. So, with a jab at the ground with his staff, Tsuriai changed course. Tsuriai was very grateful for his staff, it having been given to him by his father, who also got it from _his_ father. He wasn't really sure of the staff's origin, however, and sometimes he wondered. But he didn't really care; all he needed to know was that it wouldn't bend, break, or rust. It was also surprisingly lightweight.

So as Tsuriai was walking alongside these footsteps, he daydreamed about all the amazing sights he would see as he journeyed from one end of the Earth Kingdom to the other. But finally his thoughts strayed to his unique past. His parents dropped him off at the very tip of the Forbidden Frontier, having long since finished their travels across the world. His father was a fire bender from the Crescent Islands, and his mother was a water bender from the Northern Water Tribe.

So Tsuriai was the cross between a fire bender and a water bender. He had never heard of such a cross, so he did not know if it was unusual that he could both firebend and waterbend. What he did know was that both the fire nation and the Northern Water Tribe were very against the marriage of Kensei, Tsuriai's father, and Saiki, his mother. When both Kensei and Saiki decided that they would not be dissuaded, they were banished from their home countries.

Because of this, they resided most of the time in the Earth Kingdom. Luckily, they had mastered each of their elemental bending abilities, so in time they also taught Tsuriai everything they knew. This proved to be a very difficult task, since fire and water are clearly opposites. But after about 7 years, when he was about 16, he had learned all of his parent's teachings and keen on experimenting with both.

But the most unusual thing about Tsuriai was his ability to merge the two together. He had learned over time to be very careful with this, because when he was only 10 years old, he tried to revolve a ball of water and a ball of flame around his hand at the same time, just for fun. His parents thought nothing of it; if they hit, they would just cancel each other out, right? Well, sure enough, the ball of fire ended up hitting the water bubble; but instead of canceling each other out, there was a strange reaction. A huge concussion knocked both him and his parents five feet into the air, and the air where it had exploded glowed white, and then disappeared.

His parents forbade him from ever attempting to use both at the same time until he had mastered both separately. He understood and obliged.

The footprints led to the eastern cliffs, where they stopped about 20 feet away from the edge.

Puzzled, Tsuriai looked around and yelled, "Is someone there?"

There was no response. Tsuriai walked to the edge of the cliff and smiled. A long flight of rough stairs led to the beach, where he could refill his water bottle.

His father had taught him how to remove the salt from the water. It was a long, complicated process, as he still could not waterbend and firebend at the same time without the concussion effect. He had experimented more since he had mastered his parent's teachings, but could not use them both for, well, _normal_ purposes. So using complex firebending, he distilled the water, and added it to his canteen. Then he chilled it using his waterbending ability, and took a long draught. Tsuriai smiled again. Sometimes it was nice to be both a fire bender _and _a water bender.

Tsuriai sat on a rock for awhile, looking out at the northern sea. It was a very nice afternoon, with a cool breeze caressing his face, and the sound of waves breaking against the jagged rocks. This was a great place to wander, but Tsuriai made a mental note to avoid this place by sea.

As evening came, Tsuriai decided it would be a good time to seek a place to sleep for the night. He could sleep on the sandy beach and risk the tides coming in, or he could walk all the way back up to the cliff and find a spot there. Tsuriai decided to stay on the beach, but went as high as he could, just in case.

In the forbidden frontier, there seemed to be an absence of trees, but at the beach there was plenty of driftwood. So he collected some of the driftwood, set up camp, and retired for the night.


End file.
